Green and White Tonight, a student-founded online show with a Saturday Night Live feel, is looking for students actors to expand the diversity of the show and engage students about athletics at Eastern Michigan University.
Those interested should have an outgoing personality, energy and a lot of school spirit. Also, those who want to get involved should care about EMU and take university athletics seriously.
The show was began in January 2011, a creation by Kristi Adams and Christopher McNeill.
Their hopes were to engage students in a new way while drawing attention to the Athletics marketing promotions and games.
Show actor and co-director McNeill said, “We want students to associate the cast as their ‘go-to source’ for all things EMU athletics related.”
Four main actors work on the show regularly including McNeill and Adams.
These actors all work in University Marketing, and say they genuinely love going to EMU games.
While all of the main actors are co-workers already, they joined together because they wanted to make a
difference in how EMU students feel about athletics.
McNeill said he noticed students aren’t as excited about EMU athletics as they could be.
“Students don’t really know the athletes well, and may feel uncomfortable about talking to people at the Convocation Center,” he said.
“University Marketing is there at all of the games,” McNeill said. “We are doing promotions, talking to students in the stands and trying to make people feel welcome and engaged. We serve as spokespeople for athletics.”
Green and White Tonight focuses on a diehard EMU fan who goes to great lengths to pledge his love and devotion to the university, athletics teams and mascot, Swoop. A mixture of humor and information about upcoming athletic events is used in episodes that run approximately five minutes.
Guest stars, including Swoop, are often featured in these episodes filmed on several places across campus
including the Student Center and the residence halls.
Extras are used in Green and White Tonight’s episodes if they have fun, outgoing personalities that would add to the enthusiasm of the message they are trying to convey.
The cast hopes their own excitement will influence students to attend games.
EMU“We want to provide a way to associate the campus with our athletes, and provide faces to go with the names,” McNeill said.
University Marketing seeks to increase attendance at games as well as improve the “so-so” attitude many students have about EMU athletics.
Currently, Green and White Tonight is focusing on the football team, but plans on covering other sports later in the semester.
Typically, current episodes are posted on Wednesdays or Thursdays after home football games. There will be six
episodes airing this season.
Basketball will be a main focus in the winter, and volleyball among other sports will also be mentioned. Episodes for big campus events are also included in Green and White Tonight’s schedule.
“We want to give a shout-out to the women’s soccer team and other athletic groups during our show as well,” McNeill said.
Episodes are aired on YouTube, with the channel username ‘greenandwhitetonight.’ Older episodes can be found at EMU’s channel, username ‘emichigan08.’
Anyone who cares about EMU sports, likes to act and would like to appear on Green and White Tonight can contact Adams or McNeill by e-mailing greenandwhitetonight@gmail.com.
